Pete Olson’s Independence Day flub

Rep. Pete Olson sent out a timely, patriotic message to his constituents yesterday for the Fourth of July.

His email spoke of “how lucky we all are to be Americans” and quoted Irish orator John Philpot Curran while describing the United States as a “beacon of liberty across the globe.” Then, Olson asked those reading his message to remember “the true meaning and intention of what would become our most important governing document, the Constitution of the United States of America.”

There’s only one problem with that — the Fourth celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.

The Constitution of the United States was actually adopted September 17, 1787 and then ratified by conventions in 11 states before going into effect March 4, 1789.

The document mix-up wasn’t the only confusing part of Olson’s email for constituent Taylor Kilroy, who brought the message to our attention, and pointed out the Congressman’s direction to “keep alive the Spirit of ’76.”

“The reference to the Spirit of ’76 (odd capitalization and all) also confused me, because I thought of the Rob Reiner movie from the ’90s of the same name, which is probably not what he was going for,” Kilroy said in an email.